Provider IGT has been issued a patent relating to multi-hand functionality in video poker.
U.S. Patent No. 9,105,158 grants IGT's operating company exclusive rights in the field through to November 2016.
The firm describes the patent as "central" to many of its multi-hand video poker games including All-Star Poker; Ultimate X Poker; Hyper Bonus Poker; Triple Play, Five Play and Ten Play Draw Poker; and many other five, ten, 25, 50 and 100-play IGT video poker products.
"Multi-hand poker remains a pillar of IGT's industry-leading video poker product portfolio," said Jacob Lanning, IGT vice president of product management.
"This important patent enables IGT to maintain its global leadership in video poker content creation and deployment and allows the company to continue to create proven game themes that are often some of the highest-earning titles on our customers' floors."
Provider GTech completed its acquisition of IGT in April, keeping the IGT name.